Opinion
Myth of the Freeloading Bicyclist
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
Advertising Manager
J ERRY F OSTER
Account Executive
L ISA L OVING
News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
Multimedia Editor
D AVID K IDD
Graphic Designer
M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
tion, published each Wednesday by
IMM Publications Inc.,
415 N. Killingsworth St.,
P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228.
Telephone (503) 285-5555.
E-mail: info@theskanner.com
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“S
hould cyclists pay a
road tax?”
That was printed on the side of
one of Portland’s MAX light rail
trains as it sailed back and forth
across the region for six months in
2009.
“We already do!” I would grum-
ble every time I saw it.
It’s true. And fair being fair, we
overpay.
Say you own a car. You pay out
the nose, an average of $9,519 this
year, according to the American
Automobile Association. You may
pay much less or much more, but
still, ouch.
Part of that cost — a percentage
of your gas, registration, license,
and tolls — goes directly to pay
for roads.
The thing is, that money only
pays for freeways and highways.
Or it mostly pays for them—a
hefty chunk of change for these
incredibly expensive, high mainte-
nance thoroughfares still comes
from the general fund.
Local roads, where you are most
likely do most of your daily bicy-
cling, are a different story. The
cost of building, maintaining, and
managing traffic on these local
roads adds up to about 6 cents per
mile for each motor vehicle. The
cost contributed to these roads by
the drivers of these motor vehicles
through direct user fees? 0.7 cents
per mile. The rest comes out of the
general tax fund.
This means that anyone who
owns a home, rents, purchases tax-
able goods, collects taxable
income, or runs a business also
pays for the roads. If you don’t
drive a car, even for some trips,
you are subsidizing those who
do—by a lot. The best primer on
this is economist Todd Litman’s
highly readable 2004 report
B ICYCLISTS S PEAK
Ely Blue
‘Whose Roads.’ A journalist
recently crunched the numbers in
Seattle and found the discrepancy
slower, lighter, smaller bicycles,
the externalities add up to one
meager cent per mile.
The average driver travels
10,000 miles in town each year
and contributes $324 in taxes and
direct fees. The cost to the public,
including direct costs and exter-
Anyone who owns a home, rents,
purchases taxable goods, collects
taxable income, or runs a business
also pays for the roads. If you don’t
drive a car, even for some trips, you
are subsidizing those who do—by a lot
in 2010 to be as wide as ever.
There are many reasons for
cities to encourage bicycling, and
the economic argument is one of
nalities, is a whopping $3,360.
On the opposite pole, someone
who exclusively bikes may go
3,000 miles in a year, contribute
$300 annually in taxes, and costs
Nothing is accomplished by putting
up barriers to active transportation.
Instead, these barriers need to be
removed
the best. Every time somebody
gets on a bicycle instead of in a
car, the city saves money. The cost
of road maintenance is averaged at
5.6 cents per mile per motor vehi-
cle. Add the so-called external
costs of parking (10 cents), crash-
es (8 cents), congestion (4 cents),
and land costs and that’s another
28 cents per mile! Meanwhile, for
the public only $36, making for a
profit of $264. To balance the road
budget, we need 12 people com-
muting by bicycle for each person
who commutes by car.
The numbers continue to be
astonishing when you consider the
cost of bicycle infrastructure. It
consists mainly of paint and is dirt
cheap by comparison to any other
sort of transportation project. Port-
land has transformed itself into a
bicycling mecca while allocating
less than 1 percent of its trans-
portation budget to bikes each
year, with critics fighting tooth
and nail against every penny
spent.
In tight economic times, when
it’s hard to scrape together the
cash to fill potholes, even this low
level of bicycle spending is often
put on hold. But what if, instead,
the road tax overpaid by bicyclists
were invested into making city
streets safer, more comfortable,
and more convenient for bicy-
cling? New York City has been
doing just that, resulting in tens of
thousands of people taking to the
streets on two wheels and, pre-
sumably, saving the city a whole
hell of a lot of cash.
Yet the myth of bicyclists as
freeloaders is gaining ground. Pro-
posals for bicycle registration
schemes crop up every few
months, usually from conservative
politicians looking for someone to
blame, but also at times from well-
meaning bicycle advocates. Never
mind that no such program has
ever managed to pay for its own
administrative costs. Nothing is
accomplished by putting up barri-
ers to active transportation.
Instead, these barriers need to be
removed.
Cities—and taxpayers—can’t
afford not to invest in bicycling.
What do
you think?
post your comments on
www.theskanner.com
Fax: (503) 285-2900
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It’s Time to Pay
Our Fair Share
Dear Editor,
Many years ago both people and
bicycles used the same sidewalks
to move from place to place, and
at that time it was considered fair,
because our taxes paid for that
space to commute, but as more
people began to use their bicycles
to commute from place to place,
both bike commuting and walking
on the same sidewalks became
dangerous.
Many
accidents
occurred between bike riders and
people walking on the sidewalks,
so cyclist began to use public
streets intended for motorized use
and at that time nothing was said
because the marking on the streets
and the traffic signs and lights
were already paid for by license
fees, paid by motorized vehicle
users, both two wheels and four.
Today cyclist no longer share the
streets with motorized vehicles,
cyclist have their own bike lanes,
both on the streets (i.e. 150 miles
of bicycle lanes, bicycle Boule-
Page 4 The Portland Skanner July 4th, 2012
vards, and off street paths,) and on
the bridges (i.e., Broadway, Steel,
Burnside, and the Hawthorne).
Bike use on public streets in 1975
was 200 cyclists per day and by
1995 the numbers had grown to
over 2000 cyclist per day and
bridge use, due to the fact that
lanes were set aside for bike travel
in 1991 has increased from .001 to
will serve the needs of new and
old cyclist living in our State.
What is not part of the Key Ele-
ments or the Objectives, is a way
to identify if the cyclist using pub-
lic streets are aware of the rules
and regulations that have been put
in place to protect cyclist and other
users of our public streets; to date
anyone can put on a helmet, jump
To date anyone can put on a helmet,
jump on a bike and endanger
anyone he or she pleases
over 322 percent, further, cyclist
have over 1,400 publicly installed
bicycle racks and bicycle stations,
that provide shower facilities and
long term bike storage.
Cyclist all over the State of Ore-
gon, have backed a Master Plan
that will be implemented over a
twenty year period; this plan has
Key Elements and Objectives that
on a bike and endanger anyone he
or she pleases. The Key Elements
nor the Master Plan Objectives
address age limits for public street
use of bicycles; the Key Elements
has also failed to ask the question,
why are we letting kids ride their
bikes in public streets without a
visible way for the car driver, or
the motor bike driver to know if
that child has been trained in the
use of proper turn signals or where
to stop when a traffic light is
blinking. I believe as a long time
bike rider, it is time for us to pay
our fair share of the cost to put this
Master Plan into operation; I fur-
ther believe that we should have a
visible license plate on every bike,
backed by all the requirements that
having a license requires. The new
revenue, received from requiring
all bikes that use public streets, to
have a visible license plate, will
pay for all future projects that ben-
efit old and new bike riders and
will assist in making the 20 year
plan a reality.
Cyclist are planning for big
changes in the State of Oregon,
and this responsibility should not
be a burden left for someone else
to bear. I end this rant! by stating
that The President, believed that
people making more than a million
dollars a year should pay their fair
share of taxes, I too believe that as
a cyclist using public streets and
bridges that have lanes set aside
for my use, that I should also, PAY
MY FAIR SHARE.
Adolfo Akil
Portland